A project by: Will Hunter
The Evening Standard launched the LSA in March 2015
What is the London School of Architecture?
Providing the most talented candidates with a creative, relevant and affordable route into architecture, the LSA is a school for independent minds not independent means. Opening last October, there are 30 of us enrolled this year and 145 applications for next year. With the city as our campus, we are taught in the capital’s latent spaces and site our projects in a different borough each year. Uniting academia and industry, our programme is validated by London Metropolitan University and has partnerships with 45 leading architectural practices.
Why do we need a new architecture school?
From 2016 most of England’s architecture schools will start to charge the full £9,000/year for all five years of architectural education. It’s predicted that architecture graduates will now never pay off their student loans within their lifetime. Instead of racking up £18,000 tuition fee debt, the LSA is the UK’s first ‘cost-neutral’ fee model, where total fees of £12,000 for both years are balanced with a minimum salary of £12,000 from a work placement.
How will your money be used?
Your donation – whether it is £1 or £5,000 – will make a vital contribution. We will distribute the funds as bursaries of between £5,000 and £10,000. The poorest university students can borrow £10,000 from the state for living costs; however we currently can’t do this. A number of us are genuinely extremely concerned about being able to fund our second year and may have to defer or drop out altogether. The bursaries would support the poorest of us and enable us to complete our studies – which we really want to do!
The LSA is a registered charity (no. 1159927), so all donations are tax deductible, and you can elect to increase your donation with Gift Aid.
Rewards
The two collaborative drawings of Soho made by our students at the Le Gun workshop
Top reward: painting ‘All Day Breakfast’ (800x1400cm) by the Stirling Prize-winning architect Will Alsop RAA limited edition print of ‘Mt. Elsie’ project in Swansea by Turner Prize-winning Assemble
A limited edition print of Richmond Park Golf Clubhouse by RIBA Gold Medal-winning Cullinan Studio
A limited edition print, La Folie Divine in Montpellier, by Professor Farshid Moussavi RA
A limited edition print of Mixtacity Hands by Professor Nigel Coates
A limited edition print from 1806 by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, courtesy of Drawing Matter
A limited edition print of a perspective by Pritzker Prize-winning Alvaro Siza, courtesy of Drawing Matter
A limited edition print of The International Quarter S6 building signed by Soki So and Ivan Harbour from RIBA Gold Medal-winning and multi Stirling Prize-winning Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners